Greetings Loyal Airmen, we trust all of you are getting ready for the advent of Spring.  As you are reading this, the Air Chief and Valerie are in sunny Ft. Myers on vacation.  Meanwhile things continue to buzz back at Hangar 27. This past week we released our second book of the year and it’s a beauty.

The book is SHERLOCK HOLMES – CONSULTING DETECTIVE Vol 7 – another stellar addition to this bestselling series from Airship 27 Productions.  While planning the book, Art Director Rob Davis and the Air Chief offered the cover job to artist Michael Youngblood.  Youngblood had already done two previous covers for us and we truly love his talents as a digital painter.  So the offer was made and Youngblood happily signed on.  Then, after a few weeks, he wrote us saying he was having some difficulty coming up with just the right composition that would showcase both Holmes and Watson dramatically.  And that Loyal Airmen, is when you are lucky to have a super talented Art Director like Rob.  In a matter of minutes, he whipped up the rough sketch you see above and sent it off to Youngblood.

From that one sketch, Youngblood completed a detailed drawing that was simply beautiful.  You’ll note this Holmes bears a striking resemblance to the late actor Jeremy Brett.  No surprises there, as Brett is Rob’s favorite Sherlock Holmes.  So now Youngblood has his composition and was totally on the right path.  All that remained was for him to color it.

The next step in the process was laying down the color flats to assure we approved of his palette choices.  Naturally, we did.  Everything was coming together wonderfully.

At the same time the actual book was coming together speedily.  The Air Chief had read and edited the four new amazing mysteries by Greg Hatcher, Aaron Smith, Alan Porter and I.A. Watson and Rob had finished his 12 interior illustrations.  Now all that remained was to get in the finished cover, which is what you see above. We couldn’t be happier.  Michael Youngblood gave us one of the finest Holmes covers we’ve ever had grace one of our anthologies.

All that remained was Rob to do his gorgeous design work…and voila, the book was finished.  It is now on sale at Amazon.com in both hard copy and on Kindle. As ever we hope you’ll check it out.  We think you’ll like it as much as we do.  As ever, thanks for your continued support and bravo to both Rob and Michael for creating such a stunning work of art.

Finally, last week we announced the launching of the Airship 27 Podcast show.  Response to our first episode was truly amazing.  Rob and the Air Chief wish to thank all you Loyal Airmen who listened in and send us such positive feedback later. We truly couldn’t do this show without you.  Stay tuned, episode will be up the second week of March.  And there you have it, Loyal Airmen. Thanks as ever for stopping by and we’ll see you all here next week.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen and welcome to another Flight Log entry.  In the past, the Air Chief has several times mentioned the informal group of comicbook creators we get together with on various occasions.  Whereas all of us try to meet for breakfast on the first Saturday of ever month.  We’ve been doing this for almost four years now.

This past Sat, eleven of the Fort Collins Comics Coffee Clutch Crew got together at our local deli for several hours of fun talking comics, movies and whatever fun stuff came to mind.  Above is a shot of those in attendance.  Going around the horseshoe from left to right we have, Tim Orr, Mike Baron, the Air Chief, Bryan Richmond, Ben Mikilsen, Abrah Akins, Steve Emmons, James Gabauz, Todd Jones, Rio Herrera and Thomas Webster.  The Air Chief truly looks forward to these monthly get-together.

A few weeks ago, we mentioned that our latest pulp book would coming out in June from Moonstone Books and it features our flying hero, NIGHTHAWK.  When the Air Chief first mentioned this project over on Facebook, a fellow pulp enthusiast, Jack Maxwell, contacted us about possibly designing an emblem for the character. After a bit of back and forth, Jack came up with the logo above.  In fact, we liked it so much, we showed it to the artist doing the cover to the book and he is incorporating it in the cover.

This this morning the mail arrived and with it a package from Jack that contained three very wonderful items, all hand-crafted by this talented fellow.  There was authentic Spider ring like the one worn by that famous pulp avenger and two flying pins.  The top is of the classic G-8 and the bottom is that of our own hero, NIGHTHAWK.  It is the exact logo seen above sculpted into a pin.  And this picture truly doesn’t do it justice.  Believe us, Loyal Airmen, any of you planning on attending the Pulp Cons this year, ala the Windy City show and Pulp Fest can expect to see this gorgeous pin on the Air Chief’s shirt.  Oh, yeah.

Well, our first ever AIRSHIP 27 PODCAST has gone live. Below you’ll find the link to it. We hope many of you Loyal Airmen will give it a listen and please, Rob and the Air Chief would love your feedback.  (http://comicrelated.com/news/28457/airship-27-podcast-1)

And that’s it for this really fast and busy week, Loyal Airmen.  Again, we hope you’ll listen to our postcast, which by the way, can also be found on YOU TUBE, if you are interested.  Be back next week when we announced our second pulp title of the year. Take care.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen.  The Air Chief has told you bits and pieces over the past few months about some of the new pulp themed comics we will be writing for the good people at Moonstone Comics. Well, check this out.

One of the two on-going series we are writing is called GUNS OF THE BLACK BAT and is pretty much a team-up series wherein the Black Bat, in each adventure, recruits other well known pulp heroes to help him battle particularly dangerous threats against mankind.  The artist on the project, i.e. drawing the pages is a gifted fellow named Silvestre Szilagyi and believe us, his work is stunning.  Not to be undone, Managing Editor Joe Gentile went and recruited another amazing artist to do the covers, one Michael Stribling.  That’s his work above and the Air Chief was blown away when Michael posted it on-line this past week.  Featured here, starting at the top and going clockwise is, theBlack Bat, Nighthawk, the Phantom Detective, Domino Lady, I.V. Frost and his assistant Jean Moray.  It’s been a long-long time since the Air Chief has been so excited about a comicbook series.  Stay tuned.

We’ve already shown you some of Rob Davis’ marvelous interior illustrations to our next pulp release, SHERLOCK HOLMES – CONSULTING DETECTIVE Vol 7.  Above is a peek at the start of the cover to be painted by artist Michael Youngblood.  Rob assisted Michael by doing up a rough sketch which Michael tend took did his own complete version.  Of course whereas Rob’s favorite actor to portray the great detective was the late Jeremy Brett, it is no coincident that this particular Holmes will look a whole lot like that wonderful actor.

On other more personal note, the Air Chief this past week completed a 36,000 word novella entitled THE FACES OF FEAR which co-stars the classic pulp heroes, the Black Bat & the Purple Scar.  Moonstone Books will be publishing the book.  Of course we’ll post more details as they become available.

Now the big news of the week. For the first time ever, the annual Pulp Factory Awards voting is open to the public.  The official ballot was released all over the internet and it follows here. Should you want to participate and vote, simply follow the directions as stated at the top of the form.

OFFICIAL BALLOT
PULP FACTORY AWARDS 2015
VOTERS NAME (_________)
Please vote for only one in each of the four categories by putting a X in the appropriate circle. Once completed, send directly to andrewsalmon2000@yahoo.com You have until the end of March to vote and turn in your ballot.

BEST PULP NOVEL:
( ) The Bay Phantom: Confederacy of Devils by Chuck Miller (Airship 27 Productions)
( ) The Cast Away by Wayne Reinagel (Knightraven Studios)
( ) Legion III: Kings of Oblivion by Van Allen Plexico (White Rocket Books)
( ) The Vril Agenda by Derrick Ferguson & Joshua Reynolds (Airship 27 Productions)
( ) Young Dillon in the Halls of Shamballah by Derrick Ferguson (Pro Se Press)
BEST PULP ANTHOLOGY:
( ) The New Adventures of Major Lacy and Amusement Inc – David Brezski, David White, Morgan Minor, Ed. (Pro Se Press)
( ) Pride of the Mohicans – Van Allen Plexico, Ed. (White Rocket Books)
( ) Sgt. Janus Returns – Ron Fortier, Ed. (Airship 27 Productions)
( ) Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol 6 – Ron Fortier, Ed. (Airship 27 Productions )
( ) Sinbad: The New Voyages Vol 4 – Ron Fortier, Ed. (Airship 27 Productions)
BEST PULP SHORT STORY:
( ) “Beasts of the Bowery” by Michael Panush from El Mosaico: Hellfire (Curiosity Quills Press)
( ) “The Fort of Skulls” by Ian Watson from Pride of the Mohicans (White Rocket Books)
( ) “Kissing Cousins” by Ralph L. Angelo Jr. from More Blood – a Sinanju Anthology (Destroyer Books)
( ) “The Seventh Serpent” by Graham McNeill (Black Library)
( ) “The Strix Society” by Joshua Reynolds from Occult Detective, Vol. 1 (Airship 27 Productions)
BEST PULP COVER:
( ) Michael Kaluta, Challenger Storm – Curse of Poseidon (Airship 27 Productions )
( ) Douglas Klauba, Domino Lady Money Shot (Moonstone Books)
( ) Jeffrey Hayes, Gary Phillips’ Hollis PI (Pro Se Press)
( ) Mark Williams, Legion II: Sons of Terra (White Rocket Books)
( ) Adam Shaw, The Vril Agenda (Airship 27 Productions)
BEST INTERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS:
( ) Zachary Brunner, The Bay Phantom: Confederacy of Devils (Airship 27 Productions)
( ) Rob Davis, Robin Hood, Forbidden Legend (Airship 27 Productions)
( ) Rob Davis, Sherlock Holmes – Consulting Detective Vol 6 (Airship 27 Productions)
( ) Phil Cho, Sinbad – The New Voyages Vol 4 (Airship 27 Productions)
( ) Fabio Listrani, Zombies Vs. Robots: No Man’s Land (IDW)

And of course want to congratulate everyone who was nominated.  The actual awards trophies will be given out at this year’s Windy City Pulp & Paper con happening in April  We’ll naturally post the winners here.  Thanks for stopping by.  See you back here next Friday.

Ron Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen and welcome to this week’s truly exciting Flight Log.  We’ve got some grand news to pass along to you, so let’s get cracking.

We’re sure most of you are by now familiar with audio podcast; they are pretty much the internet version of radio shows.  People record on their PCs in audio files then post them on sites for others to download and listen to.  For the past four years Ye Old Air Chief has been a co-host on the popular ZONE 4 weekly podcast created by Brant Fowler and supported by the popular comic book website, Comic Related.  Just at the end of last year we recorded our 300th episode.  After that laudable achievement, Brant approached us about the idea of our creating a brand new Zone 4 sponsored podcast devoted to the topic of New Pulp Fiction.  We immediately contacted our Art Director (and partner in crime) Rob Davis and asked how he would like to co-host such a podcast with us.  Starting in Feb, ZONE 4 presents AIRSHIP 27 will launch as a one hour, once a month podcast that will air the second week of every month.  Rob and the Air Chief hope to make this a fun, informal program were we talk not only about our projects coming from Airship 27 Productions, but about all the news in the New Pulp Community, including conventions and other projects from our colleagues.  One of the things we’d love to do on this show is answer any and all questions you might have regarding our projects at Airship 27 Productions; which ones you liked and would like to see more of, or which ones you did not think worked….or which kind of different books do you think we should be doing.  Any and all questions would be most welcomed. You can send them directly to me here or to both Rob and Air Chief via our Facebook pages.  Of course keep reading the Flight Logs as we’ll let you know when the first show airs and where to find it.

Speaking of the old Airship 27, we are thrilled to be announcing our two very first projects of this new year.  We’ve just released our first novel of the year and its a rootin’tootin western called GUN GLORY by ace writer R.A. Jones.  Note, this is a straight up western in the grand tradition of Loui L’Amour and Max Brand and a truly great read.  The cover painting was provided by Graham Hill and has nine interior illustrations by artist Neil T. Foster, with Rob Davis handling book design.  The book is now available at Amazon in hard copy and will soon be available for Kindle in just a few more days. We hope you check it out.

Which brings us to our second offering of the month, a Kindle only title, SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERIOUS by I.A. Watson.   As most of you Loyal Airmen know, our best selling series at Airship 27 Productions is our SHERLOCK HOLMES – CONSULTING DETECTIVE books of which we’ve published six thus far with volume number now in the works.  In the course of that time this series has produced four Pulp Factory Awards, one for Best Pulp Cover (Mark Maddox), one for Best Interior Illustrations (Rob Davis) and two for Best Pulp Short Story (Andrew Salmon & I.A. Watson.) In fact, Watson has had seven stories published in these first six volumes.  Enough so that we thought it would be a very good idea to collect all of them in one digital big book and thus we put together SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERIES by I.A. Watson….and to sweeten the pot a bit, we also had Watson provide us with an eight, and brand new, story that has never been published before.  This massive collection is now on sale at Amazon…and again, only available in digital Kindle format.  We have given some thought to later producing a deluxe hardcover edition and would appreciate your thoughts on such a book.  Yes or no?  Remember, we’re all about giving you Loyal Airmen the kind of books you want, so let us know.

And there you have it for this week, my friends.  As ever, thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you all back here next Friday.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greeting Loyal Airmen, we've had a busy week at Hangar 27 getting all kinds of projects ready to launch. Many of which you will all be hearing about right here.  And for that reason this week's Flight Log is going to be a wee bit on the thin size, but we trust you'll enjoy what we've posted.

Last year the students of Colorado State University here in our home town of Fort Collins, CO. hosted the first ever FoCo Comics & Gaming Festival of which the Air Chief was a promoter and guest. The one day event turned out to be a huge success…enough so that the folks at CSU are doing it again this year, to be held on the campus itself on Sunday March 8th.  Once again, the Air Chief and many other amazing comic writers and artists will be featured there as guests.  In fact the good people of FoCo finally came up with an official logo for the con based on the college's own iconic character, BIG BUCK.  And here he is finally in full superhero regalia.  We'll tell you lots more about this show as it nears.

Speaking of superheroes, ABC premiered the first episodes of its new hero-related series, AGENT CARTER this past Tuesday to rousing success.  Based upon the further post World War II exploits of Captain America's girlfriend, Agent Peggy Carter during the early years after the war.  In fact it is set in 1946, the year the Air Chief and millions of other baby-boomers were born.  Reprising her role as the sassy, highly capable Agent Cart is British actress Hayley Atwell, who is said to have been thrilled to be able to resurrect her character from that film and now continue to bring us her further adventures.  The two hour premier was rollicking fun and we can't wait for more.

A few years ago Airship 27 Productions brought you the adventures of THE SHADOW LEGION in their first novel adventure, NEW ROADS TO HELL by author Thomas Deja.  Well, Thomas spent last year penning the sequel, SHADOW LEGION – CASE FILES, and now Canadian artist Vincent Marchesano has begun drawing the interior illustrations for the new book.  Above is his depiction of the blind hero known as Ferryman, who can see through the yes of ghosts, which always plague him.  This is great pulp fun and we can't wait to get it wrapped up and brought to you.

And there you go for another week, Loyal Airmen.  As ever thanks so much for stopping by.  Hopefully in a few more weeks we hope to have some really amazing and fun news concerning Airship 27 Productions we hope you are going to rave about.  Stay tuned till then.

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well here we are, our first Flight Log of a brand new year, 2015. It is one we are very, very happy to see roll in.  2014 certainly had its ups and downs, with family loses and illnesses, but God as ever blessed us throughout and made this year end time special for the Air Chief and all his loved ones.

Our mother, Gabrielle Fortier, is one of five girls, maiden name Richer.  Now residing in a senior home for the past seven years, it has been a long while, years in fact, since she's seen several of her sisters.  Feeling wonderfully well this holiday season, our younger brother, Paul, offered to drive her to go visit two of her sisters just after Christmas.  They went the visit Cecile, the oldest of the sisters and while there, called Rose, the youngest, and she happily came to join them.  Above are the three of the five Richer girls, from left to right, Aunt Cecile, now 92, Mom at 90, and Rose, whose age we really don't know, save she was the baby in the group.  Missing were Hortense, born after Mom and Jeanette, the fourth in line.
Paul took this picture and shared it with the rest of the family.  Talk about a joyous time.  Mom was one of ten children, five girls …and five boys.  Of her brothers, only Henry remains, keeping the well known statistic true that women do tend to live longer.  Here's praying we have the Richer sisters for a long time yet to come, God willing.

Two years ago, while attending the Rocky Mountain Con in Denver, we met artist Kevin A Johnson.  From that meeting came a new friendship and Kevin signed on to illustrate our graphic novel, THE BLACK LION, which had been collecting dust for over a decade in our script files.  Once Kevin was on board, we recruited inker Mark Stegbauer on to the team. 

                                                    
Then we were so lucky to get Warren Montgomery to join us as the letterer and colorist.  Over the past year, all three of these talented men have been working on the project between their many other obligations and commitments, but we're happy to say it is finally starting to come together…and beautifully so.  Above you will find pages 1 and 2, our little peek to all you Loyal Airmen.  It will still be many, many months before this project is finished, but hey, we think when you have this kind of quality, it's okay to wait.

On the pulp side of things, we had shut down operations at Airship 27 Productions for the holiday, affording both the Air Chief and Art Director a little welcome R & R.  But hey, the new year is here now and we've once again started up our pulp production line.  Barring an unexpected calamity, our first new title for 2015 is going to be a great, old fashion western called GUN GLORY, written by R.A. Jones with a cover by Graham Hill and interior illos by Neil T. Foster.  Above a peek of the back cover.  Stay tuned, Loyal Airmen, this should be out and on sale in another few weeks.

Of course the line-up of new pulp titles we have coming out this year is nothing short of fantastic, what with more Sherlock Holmes anthologies and several full-length novels starring the Great Detective.  And then we've got our usual anthologies featuring our classic pulp heroes ala the Black Bat, Secret Agent X and the Domino Lady.  In between these series outings, you can expect to see some truly amazing books like our first ever Houdini anthology.  Above is a preliminary mock-up of the cover by the super talented Carl Yonder.  Like all Airship 27 anthologies, this one will feature four new adventures starting the famous magician'escape artist.  We're predicting this to be a big winner for us.

And those are just a very few of some of the things coming your way from both Airship 27 Productions and Redbud Studio.  Personally, the Air Chief has two brand new pulp comicbook series coming from Moonstone plus several novels and short stories for them.  As you can see, busy as ever.  We hope you'll stay with us.  2015 looks has the potential to be our best year ever.

Finally, all of us here wish all our Loyal Airmen a truly HAPPY NEW YEAR.  God bless you and your loved ones.

Ron (Over & Out!)

Greetings Loyal Airmen, well the Air Chief is behind the old eight ball today.   After celebrating a fantastic Christmas yesterday, we were pleasantly surprised to see it start snowing here in Fort Collins just as the sun set.  It continued all night till we awoke this morning to a true Christmas wonderland outside our windows.  A leisurely breakfast, then outdoors to shovel off the car and driveway and off to a local UPS shop to mail off our grandson Logan's birthday present.  His birthday is the 31st of Dec.  Somewhere along all this running around, we suddenly realized we hadn't done our Flight Log.  So again apologies and here we go.

                          
Usually every Christmas we go out and find a new “special” Christmas tree ornament to add to our collection on the Christmas tree.  Well this year several new additions joined the ranks.  Knowing of our love of the Rocketeer, Valerie had this little gem all wrapped up and waiting for us.  It now joins the Air Chief prized collection that includes Captain America, Spider Man, the Flash and the Lone Ranger.  Of course it was Valerie who ended up with the biggest ornament surprise of all.

                                 
You see, one of her favorite holiday movies is “National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation,” with Chevy Chase going crazy trying to give his family the best old fashion Christmas ever.  What makes Valerie laugh every time she sees it is the scene wherein a squirrel has gotten into their house and is hiding in the Christmas tree.  Clark goes to investigate only to have the animal jump out of the tree at him.  Well, our son Alan, knowing of her affection for this movie, got her the above ornament…and get this, it comes with sound, as Clark's aunt says there's a noise in the tree.  Then we hear the squirrel's chirp followed by Clark's scream.  It is hilarious.

Now one of the nicest the Air Chief received this year happened Christmas night.  While on Facebook, we saw lots of our friends posting pictures of all the great things Santa had brought them this year.  Our last title of the year for Airship 27 Productions was  OCCULT DETECTIVES Vol One. – See Above.  So imagine the Air Chief's wonderful surprise when FB pal, Sam Gafford posted a picture of all the cool video games, toys, comics and assorted books he received…and there amongst all this wonderful loot was a copy of our book!!! 

Can you spot the copy of our OCCULT DETECTIVES among Sam's Christmas goodies?  Honestly, this was one of the best Christmas surprises the Air Chief has ever had.  We tell you Loyal Airmen all the time what your support means to us and we speak from the heart.  THANK YOU. We hope your Christmas was as much fun as ours and we dearly wish you all a truly fantastic HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Ron – Over & Out!

Greetings Loyal Airmen.  As hard as it is to believe, this is our last Flight Log before Christmas.  Yup. once again time seems to have flown past us so fast.

All of us at Hangar 27 HQ want to wish each of you a truly joyous and Merry Christmas.  It is our wish that Santa has lots of great surprises in store for each of you and that they are all awaiting you come Christmas morning under your individual, beautiful decorated Christmas trees.  Our own went up a few days after Thanksgiving thanks to Valerie and our lovely granddaughter, Cora.  Lots of the Air Chief's personal ornaments are hung from Spider-Man to Superman, the Lone Ranger and Captain America.  And we are told we've another one waiting to be unwrapped come Christmas morning.

Our son, Alan, asked me what we wanted for Christmas this year and my answer was an easy one to come up with.  We wanted our Mom to have a great Christmas.  This time last year she was in the hospital having broken her hip at the age of 89.  It was the beginning of a truly horrible six months where she underwent not one, but two surgeries and lots of very difficult and painful therapy.  But to her credit, Mom proved once again that she is an incredibly strong soul and she battle back to regain her health. On Nov. 1st she turned 90 and has started doing Yoga.  This past week she attended a Christmas party and got to sit with Santa (see photo above).  She is doing great and that is nothing but answered prayer.  So thank you Jesus for the blessing of this amazing woman and for putting that beautiful smile back on her face.

Finally, we always love to give you Loyal Airmen little peeks at artwork that will be featured in coming pulp projects and we thought that would be our Christmas gift to all of you.  If all goes as planned, the first new Airship 27 Productions pulp title of 2015 is going to be a terrific old fashioned western novel called GUN GLORY by writer R.A. Jones.  Believe me, its a humdinger, if you like these kind of traditional cowboy tales ala Max Brand and Louis L'Amour.  Providing the nine interior illustrations for the book is artist Neil T. Foster and above is one of these gorgeous pieces of art.  Wait till you see the rest of them and the painted cover by Graham Hill.  It's going to kick off the New Year in great fashion.

And there you have this week's Flight Log, Loyal Airmen.  Again, may the blessings of Almighty God rain down on all of you reading these words.  May the spirit of the season, of peace, hope and love be the invisible treasures that fills all your hearts in the coming days.  Thanks ever so much for stopping by and for being a part of our Airship 27 family.  God bless.

Ron – Over & Out!